MoDOT Bridges & Box Culverts

Project Scope: New bridges and box culverts
Owner: State of Missouri
Locations: New Madrid, Stoddard, and Bollinger Counties, Missouri
Project Delivery: Prime Contractor (80% self-performed)

The MoDOT project consisted of seven full bridge replacements and two box culverts. The bridges are located within New Madrid and Stoddard Counties and the box culverts are located in Bollinger County. Penzel Construction was the prime contractor and self-performed 80% of the work. The bridges are a combination of single and triple spans with lengths up to 100’ long. The substructure consists of 14” galvanized shell piling with average lengths varying from 30’ to 110’ feet in length.

Some of the bridges on this project required installing temporary sheet piling. Penzel Construction has decades of experience installing and removing all varieties, types and lengths of sheet piling. One bridge required the removal of an existing piling, so our team rented a vibratory extractor and successfully removed the piling as specified. Once the piling was completed, the end bents and intermediate caps were formed and poured.

Penzel Construction has typically utilized friction cranes with diesel pile hammers to install pilings, although we have recently upgraded our crane to a newer 100 TN hydraulic crawler crane to install our piling. This crane is more efficient and safer than the prior friction cranes.

Most of the bridge decks consisted of pre-cast beams with precast panels, with one of the bridges being a full cast-in-place bridge. After setting the beams, the bridge deck was formed and concrete was then poured monolithically across the entire deck per MoDOT specifications. A bridge finish machine and work platform was utilized to finish the concrete. All seven bridges and the two box culverts in this package were completed on time and under budget.­­­